The strongly worded front-page commentary in the overseas edition
of the People's
Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist party,
responded to harsh criticism of China from the US for allowing
Snowden to flee.

"Not only did the US authorities not give us an explanation and
apology, it instead expressed dissatisfaction at the Hong Kong
special administrative region for handling things in accordance
with law," wrote Wang Xinjun, a researcher at the Academy of
Military Science in the People's Daily commentary.

"In a sense, the United States has gone from a 'model of human
rights' to 'an eavesdropper on personal privacy', the
'manipulator' of the centralised power over the international
internet, and the mad 'invader' of other countries' networks,"
the People's Daily said.

The White House said allowing Snowden to leave was "a deliberate
choice by the government to release a fugitive despite a valid
arrest warrant, and that decision unquestionably has a negative
impact on the US-China relationship".

The People's Daily, which reflects the thinking of the
government, said China could not accept "this kind of
dissatisfaction and opposition".

"The world will remember Edward Snowden," the newspaper said. "It
was his fearlessness that tore off Washington's sanctimonious
mask".

The exchanges mark a deterioration in ties between the two
countries just weeks after a successful summit meeting between
presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping. But experts say
Washington is unlikely to resort to any punitive action.

A commentary in the Global Times, owned by the People's Daily,
also attacked the US for cornering "a young idealist who has
exposed the sinister scandals of the US government".

"Instead of apologising, Washington is showing off its muscle by
attempting to control the whole situation," the Global Times
said.

Snowden gave US authorities the slip by leaving Hong Kong on an
Aeroflot plane to Moscow on Sunday. The US had requested his
detention for extradition to the US on treason charges but the
Hong Kong authorities responded that the papers had not been in
order and Snowden was free to leave.

Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, said Washington did not
believe the explanation that it was a "technical" decision by
Hong Kong immigration authorities. "The Hong Kong authorities
were advised of the status of Mr Snowden's travel documents in
plenty of time to have prohibited his travel as appropriate. We
do not buy the suggestion that China could not have taken
action."

On Monday Snowden had been expected to board another plane from
Moscow for Cuba and ultimately fly from there to Ecuador, which
is considering granting him asylum. But journalists who boarded
the plane in Moscow soon found Snowden had not taken his seat.

When the plane landed in Cuba there was likewise no sign that
Snowden had been on board. The pilot greeted journalists at
Havana's Jose Marti international airport by pulling out his own
camera, taking pictures of the them and saying: "No Snowden, no."

The harshly worded Chinese commentaries did not appear on the
country's main news portals on Tuesday afternoon. Instead most
articles focused on hard news, such as Snowden's still-unknown
final destination, his relationship with WikiLeaks and the
details of his departure from Hong Kong.

Another editorial in the People's Daily on Monday defended
the Hong Kong government for allowing Snowden to leave
despite a US warrant for his arrest, claiming that it acted
according to the law and "will be able to withstand examination".

"The voices of a few American politicians and media outlets
surrounding the Prism scandal have become truly shrill," it said.
"Not only do some of them lack the least bit of self-reflection
but they also arrogantly find fault with other countries for no
reason at all."

Shi Yinhong, an expert on China-US relations at Renmin University
in Beijing, said the Snowden affair had given China's leaders an
opportunity to shore up their own legitimacy domestically by
projecting a strong message of US hypocrisy.

Yet behind the scenes, he said, top leaders were probably
reluctant to allow the affair to significantly impact bilateral
ties. "Maybe this will have an impact on public opinion in China,
but for the Chinese government almost nothing has changed," he
said. "Even if this damages China-US relations it'll be very
temporary."